Japanese Gambler Penalized Following Expenditure of Entire Local COVID-19 Aid Fund
A Japanese lad was given a suspended prison term following his squandering of a whole town's COVID aid at underground online gambling venues.
Sho Taguchi, 25, received 46.3 million yen (approximately $347,000) in COVID-19 aid funds in April 2022, due to bureaucratic error. These funds were supposed to be divided among 463 low-income families in the small town of Abu, Yamaguchi Prefecture, during the pandemic's peak.
The catastrophe occurred when a town officer sent the bank a file containing the distribution list. However, it only included the total amount to be paid and the name of the first recipient, which happened to be Taguchi. The bank mistakenly perceived it as a single transfer request.
Mishap Detected
The error was identified immediately, but Taguchi transferred the funds from his bank account to an e-wallet and then to three online gambling platforms, where he gambled it all away.
Initially, the young man consented to be questioned by the police. Yet, he claimed the money was gone.
"I've already moved the money. It can't be retrieved. It can't be reversed. I won't run. I'll pay for my offense," he reportedly told authorities, adding that he'd "make amends for his sin."
The following day, he went on the lam.
Taguchi was captured on March 22 the previous year and charged with computer fraud. He was found guilty in late February and received a three-year prison sentence, suspended for five years.
The lenient judgment was due to the town persuading each casino to return the entire sum to its account.
Unjustified Fortune
Taguchi maintained his innocence, asserting that he squandered the money to ease work-related stress since town officials began harassing him following the error's discovery. However, the judge found it hard to believe.
"The defendant committed a crime only to gamble online and seems to have a disregard for the law," Judge Taku Komatsumoto said while handing down the sentence.
Komatsumoto also stated that Taguchi knew the money arrived by mistake in his account. "The defendant has an obligation to inform and this constitutes unjust enrichment," he said.
Prosecutors argued that transferring the money to the e-wallets without alerting the bank about the error equated to computer fraud.
Additionally, Abu officials filed a civil lawsuit against Taguchi, requesting legal fees and the recovery of the money. The parties eventually reached a settlement of 3.47 million yen ($27,000).
